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HOT SHOT ROACH & AUNT KILLER

Inspired by a misspelled Home Depot sign. I know, not very holiday-ish, but hey.

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Topping & Co in Bath - photograph by Susan Humphreys
I guess its hardly surprising that I haven't had much time for writing lately - well not unless you count filling in application forms for jobs - I've written plenty of those! I've even written a report on social networking as part of my volunteer work and of course i'm writing all the time on Facebook and Twitter - even on here whe i can think of something to share! but as for actual fiction - nothing!

There's no excuse really though and as a former reporter I should know you just have to do it! I must try harder! Especially as this month's National Geographic magazine has Angkor on the cover.
I have however managed to find time for my quick trip to Bath where I got to hear my hero Glen David Gold read from his new book Sunnyside. He was very funny and admitted he is also very bad at writing when he should - "oh look there's a cat in the yard," was his comment. I got to have a quick chat with him after the reading and he very kindly signed my books and told me he is however working on something new (hurrah). I'm hoping it won't take him eight years as it did after finishing Carter Beats the Devil - my favourite book. I also mentioned I read his blog - which he seemed very pleasantly surprised about! Well I know how that feels - when I'm writing on here I always feel like no-one's reading it.
Topping & Company was a fanatastic bookshop - you could spend days in there and the staff were lovely. They are also open 7 days a week till 7.30pm! I couldn't resist buying the new Jonanthan Stroud book too - Heroes of the Valley especially as it was a signed copy. If you're in Bath and you love books do pop in - well linger!
I also got to pay my second visit to Bristol Zoo, it was a glorious day and I got to check out al lot of Madagascan animals again including the aye-ayes, mouse lemurs and mongoose lemurs. One of the highlights though was getting to shake hands - well legs- with Gabriella the tarantuala - which involved letting her carefully put her limbs on the palm of my hand. She was much lighter than I expected and very soft - not at all scary. I also got to hold a Madagascan Hissing Cockroach again - they were very noisy!

With all of the focus shifting to graphic novels (this is a graphic picture book I guess), I thought I would post one of my most fun books - written by Susan Hughes and published by Scholastic, here are some images from The End of the Dinosaurs - a comic strip. Narrated by a cockroach. I never realize how much character a cockroach could have, till I had to feature them in not one, but two books.